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A SERlinN, 



-^_^ IN REFEKKNCE TO THE 

CATASTROPHE WHICH OCCURRED ON BOARD THE'", -•' . 



llnitclr States' Gl)ip Ipviuccton, 

On February 28, 1844, 
VIEWED AS A NATIONAL CALAMITY, 

Ddi leered on Suuday, lOth day of March. 



HY REV. THOMAS ATKINSON, 

RECTOR OF ST. PETER's CUDRCH. 



f 
^ubUsIieT) bf Xlequest. 



BALTIMORE: 
PUBLISHED BY D.B RUNNER, 

WOODS & CRANE, PRINTERS. 
1844. 



To THE Rev. Thos. Atkinson; 

Dear Sir — Your Sermon, delivered yesterday, was of so im- 
portant and interesting a character, as to excite, iu a large number of your 
congregation, the desire to have it published. We, the undersigned, respect- 
fully request that you will consent to place at their disposal a copy of the 
discourse for publication, which they believe calculated to be extremely 
useful in the present state of the country. 

We are. Dear Sir, 

With great respect and regard. 
Your Friends, Sec. 

WM. KREBS, WM. WOODWARD, 

NOAH RIDGKLY, JOS. TODHUNTER, 

JOHN H. DUVALL, CHARLES BALTZELL, 

GEO. K. WARNER, JOHN R. W. DUNBAR, 

D WHITEFORD, J. LONEY, 

JESSE FAHNESTOCK, WM. B. STOKES, 

WM. HARDEN, JESSE HUNT, 

ISAIAH KROESEN, BENJAMIN CRANE, 

WM. GEO. KREBS, E. B. LONG, 

R. H. MOALE, EDW. S. NORRIS, 

GEO. W. TINGES, D. BRUNNER, 

WM. W. WYMAN, MICHAEL WARNER, JR. 

JOSHUA WALKER, ROBT. TAYLOR. 
Baltimore, Utii March, 1844. 

Baltimore, March 2lst, 1844. 
Gentlemen: 

Your letter of the 11th, was put in my hands a few days ago, 
and I have not hesitated to comply with your request. The sermon I trans- 
mit you, is not, word for word, the same that you listened to, nor indeed 
could I make it so, because of the manner in which I usually prepare for the 
pulpit; but it is substantially the same. If it seemed to have any merit, it 
was because it plainly expressed what each one of you had seen and felt, 
that is, that our country was receding rather than advancing in those quali- 
ties which make a nation great and happy. Perhaps I ought to apologise 
for using such strong language as I employed on one or two occasions, but 
he who speaks as a minister of God must give distinct expression to what 
he believes to be truth. 

With great respect, I remain. 

Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS ATKINSON. 
To Wm. Krebs, Noah Ridgely, 

J. H. DuVALL, EsaS., AND OTHERS. 



SERMON. 

PROVERBS XIV. 34. 

"Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." 



In this maxim, the wisdom of the wisest of men, guided by 
inspiration of God, instructs us as to the true sources of national 
grandeur and prosperity on the one hand, and national degrada- 
tion and ignominy on the other. They are respectively righteous- 
ness and sin. It is in faith and obedience towards God, justice 
and benevolence towards man, that are laid the sure and 
immoveable foundations of a nation's greatness and a nation's 
glory. Did time permit, it would not perhaps be difficult to 
point out the steps of the process by which, on these foundations, 
the fair structure is erected. It would not be difficult to show 
that arighteous nation must be an honoured and a prosperous one. 
That it must be industrious, frugal, self-denying, benevolent and 
just. That such a nation would be bound together by the closest 
and strongest ties, by the ties of mutual esteem and mutual affec- 
tion ; by kindnesses received and obligations requited ; by a deep 
and universal reverence for Imo and rightful authority ; that a 
nation thus bound together would advance to the attainment of 
their objects, as in solid column, and meet and overcome the great- 
est difficulties, by the power of harmonious and energetic co-ope- 
ration. That in such a nation all the arts of peace must flourish, 
and should so great a calamity as war overtake it, their success 
in war would not be less certain. A people like this would see 
to it that their cause was just, and then relying on the justice of 



their cause, ami llie proleclion of a just and all-powerful God, 
they would go forth to couteud with their encuiies, with the 
most exalted and inspiring confidence, that adversity would not 
discourage tiiein, that victory would not inflate thcni, that con- 
sequently such a people must ultimately be successful. I believe 
that the annals of the human race do not furnish an instance 
where a high-principled, a moral and a religious people were 
subdued by their enemies. The very stars in their courses 
fight for them. Thus might it be shown that in the nature of 
things it is the efl'ect of righteousness to exalt a nation. Is not 
this indeed the common observation of mankind? Are not the 
volumes of political wisdom filled with maxims which teach 
that none but a moral and religious people can be permanently 
a happy and a prosperous people ? "What constitutes a state ?" 
said a very able and observant man, who had travelled much, 
seen the cities and the manners of dillerent nations, and inspect- 
ed narrowly the causes of their prosperity and decay. His 
thoughts arc none the less true and weighty because clothed in 
ptetic language: 

"What constitutes a state ? 

Not liigh-raiscd battlement or laboured mound, 

Thick wall or muatcd gate; 

Not cities proud, witli spires and turrets crowned; 

Not bays and broad-armed ports, 

\Vhere, lauijhing at the storm, rich navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts, 

\Vliere low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No ! men, high minded men, 

Men wlio their duties know, 

An<l know tlieir rights, and knowing dare maintain : 

These constitute a state." 

\r.s, 11 IS moral elevation that makes a nation truly great and 
happy. .Material prosperity, wealth, commerce, maimlactures, 
an increasing ixijjulation, a fertile and well-cultivated territory, 
ihcso may bo short-lived and deceptive evidences of a people's 
welfare. Tlio c^onqueror may come in and spoil these, the lliic- 
luaiions of trade, the accidents of the seasons, may waste them. 
NN lien a naii<tii Ikls n»tihing else to rely on, however outwardly 
pro.sjMTous, ii is ill reality wretched and helpless, and totters to 
iLs fall. jJiii ,1 miiiuii ihai has even lost these, if it have retained 
faith Ml (intl, jtiiniy nl iiit.ials, and a deep sense of duty, soon 



repairs, and more than repairs, all its losses. Mark how history 
furnishes its attestation to these vital truths. Observe any 
nation attaining eminence, and see if virtue and morality are 
not the wings on which it rises. Consider the character of those 
ancient masters of mankind, the Romans, in their early and 
illustrious days. Admire their stern, indexible virtues, their 
fervent religious spirit. Those virtues were sometimes pushed 
to the verge of extravagance, and almost became, as one of the 
fathers called them, splendid crimes, but they were founded on 
noble principles, negation of self, implicit and unbounded de- 
ference to the teachings of duty. Their religion was a false 
religion, but even this, firmly held, was far better than none. 
The profound and expansive wisdom of Tully has seen, and 
taught the world, that in the religious spirit of the early Romans 
lay, to a great extent, the secret of their power and success. 
They did nothing without consulting their gods, nothing which 
their gods forbade, and went forward in all their cnterprizes 
under the inspiring belief that the favour of the gods rested upon 
them. What then could stand before them? Could scoffing 
Greeks or sensual Asiatics? Let history answer. And in 
modern times, which of the long-established empires of the 
earth has enjoyed most of prosperity and renown, and has now 
attained the highest eminence? Is it not, by unanimous con- 
sent. Great Britain ? And, on the other hand, in which of these 
nations has the spirit of religion been most cherished, and the 
interests of morality best secured? Must not all again reply, in 
Great Britain ? Will not any traveller in Europe tell you that 
when you compare England with one of the continental coun- 
tries, it is distinguished by observance of the Sabbath, by full 
and devout attendance on public worship, by the more rare 
exhibition of gross and open immorality, by all the outward evi- 
dences of piety, and by all the precious fruits of a living faith ? 
Is it not in that little island that we are to seek for the nucleus 
of civilization and Christianity, as diffused throughout the world ? 
Does not light radiate from it, as from some intensely luminous 
point, to all the dark places of the earth, reaching to Abyssinia 
in one direction, to New Zealand in another, kindling anew the 
almost expiring flame on the ancient altars of a declining Chris- 



8 

(i;iimy,iiii(l penetrating and dispersing the gloom in which those 
demons tliat torment tlie lieathen had enslirouded tliemselves ? 
NVliat gives to England her \->o\vev and pre-eminence ? Certainly 
not the extent of the conntry, certainly not the number of the 
population. It is her intelligence, her calm and concentrated 
energy, her good faith and probity, her deep sense of duty. 
"Kngland expects every man to do his duty," were among the 
last words of one of her dying heroes. This sense of duty 
always implies a deep sense of religion co-existing or preceding 
it. For duty has reference to a standard out of ourselves, exter- 
nal to our own inclinations and feehngs. And how can we 
conceive of such a standard, unless we previously believe in a 
Being higher and greater than ourselves, and with authority, 
therefore, to set up and establish a rule of action which we are 
bound to obey ? I am persuaded, then, that a deep and con- 
trolling sense of duty implies a pre-existing sense of religion, and 
is imiwssible, and indeed inconceivable, without it. But such 
a sense of duty is the rock on which national greatness is built. 
That people whose national characteristic it is to seek for plea- 
sure, will miss what they seek for, and find misery. They, 
again, whose characteristic it is to aim at expediency, will meet 
disasters ; while they who aim at duty, will not only receive the 
rewards of duty, but the prosperity and the ease which the lovers 
of pleasure and the waiters upon expediency sought for and 
could not obtain. Thus may we see the hand of Providence 
inscribing on the history of nations, that very sentiment which 
the hand of inspiration has written down in the volume of Scrip- 
ture, that righteousness exalts a nation. 

And is it not equally true, and equally manifest, that sin is a 
reproach to any people ? Let a people become corrupt, irreligious, 
demoralized, and innnediately their wisdom forsakes them, their 
power shrinks, their laurels wither, an invisible hand seems to 
write on their temples and their palaces, on fortress and on 
council chamber — Ichabod : — The glory has departed. They 
lose first liie favour of Cod, and then they sink imder the con- 
tempt of man. Instead of many examples, take but one, un- 
happy, fallen, degraded Italy, once mistress of the world, long 
afterwards foremost in connnerco, art, literature, now the least 



9 

united, the least powerllil, the least honoiiied ainuiig civilized 
nations, and all because it is probably the most corrupt. The 
traveller sees there wide and fertile plains, once co-extensive with 
the boundaries of nations iamous in history, once thickly studded 
Avith cities and marble villas, teeming with population and wealth, 
now deserted of human inhabitants, except at rare intervals a 
solitary herdsman tending his cattle. The land which once 
gave laws to other lands, is now trodden under the heel of each 
successive conqueror. Her masters fight with one another on 
her fields for dominion over her, and she falls an uincsisting 
prey to Gaul or German, which ever be the strongest. Why do 
not her sons unite and expel both? The answer is, they cannot 
unite, they cannot trust one another. It is with the body politic 
as the natural body, when it becomes thoroughly corrupt, it 
disintegrates and falls to pieces. For a corrupt people, union is 
impossible, power hopeless, honour unattainable, nothing remains 
but misery, shame and reproach. 

And, indeed, if we believe in a Providence, we see it must be so. 
Nations, as nations, have no existence but in this world. In 
this world they must be rewarded or they lose their reward. In 
this world they must be punished or they go unpunished. But 
while righteousness is necessary to the prosperity of any people, 
there are some cases in which it is more peculiarly and conspi- 
cuously necessary. And our country certainly presents just 
such a case. Even were it possible for others, it is not possible 
that this country ever can flourish, unless our people are a moral 
and religious people. And this for several reasons. In the first 
place, our institutions were framed for a virtuous people, and 
never can be wielded by any other than a virtuous people. 
With us all power is, directly or indirectly, in the hands of the 
people. To them every important question is sooner or later 
referred, and from their decision there is no appeal to any earthly 
tribunal. When the people, then, become demoralized, the 
government must he corrupt and wicked. All authority coming 
from them, no check can be applied. Oppression, fraud, tyranny, 
misrule, are fastened upon us, and there is no escape but through 
revolution and blood. Under other institutions, the people may 
be Avicked, and yet you may enjoy considerable security and 
2 



10 

li.ipiMiit.'ss. All Antoninus may reign over you. But when 
j>)()nlar demoralization takes place among us, the flood-gates are 
at once thrown open to their widest extent, and a deluge of 
inlolorahlc evils overflows the land. While I believe our insti- 
tutions are the v^ery best that ever existed for a virtuous people, 
1 believe they are the very worst that ever existed for a wicked 
people. And both for the same reason, that all power is entrusted 
to the people themselves. 

To us, beyond any other nation, sin will bring reproach and 
misery. And there is anotlicr cause for this. God, in some re- 
spects, seems to deal with nations as with individuals. To 
whom He gives much, of them He requires much. He passed 
over offonoes when committed by the surrounding nations, that 
He visited with His most desolating scourges when committed 
by Israel. And why? because Israel had been so highly 
favoured ; it was a vineyard of His own planting, therefore when 
He looked that it should bring forth grapes, it grieved and 
angered Him liial it should bring forth wild grapes. 

When we judge oiu'sclves by tliis ])rinciplc, we have reason 
to tremble. In what other case has the cup of national pros- 
perity and happiness been filled so full as ours? Sprung as we 
are, from the Anglo-saxon race, which has been called the 
natural nobility of mankind, which, in every quarter of the 
world where it is found, rises as certainly and inevitably to pre- 
ennnence as oil floats on water; trans])lanted from lilngland 
at a time when literature was most flourishing, when the prin- 
ciples of liberty were carefully inquired into, and undauntedly 
mrtintained, when religion was most pure and powerful over 
men; bringing with us to this country, without labour or price, 
these inestimable blessings, and the safeguards and muniments 
(or their iirotcriion, which our English ancestors had acquired 
slowly, painfully, dangerously, and at great cost, planted, then, 
a country like this, of vast extent, of unequalled fertility, of un- 
bounded variety of soil and climate, of fruits and productions, 
stretching almost to the tropics in one direction, and almost to 
the frigid zone in another, separated from all dangerous neigh- 
bours by a wall of waters three thousand miles broad; what 
nation Uvls been favoured likf this nation, on what people has 



11 

*ii)il thus shdwcrcd down llis nclifsi and nmsl pittrinns hh-ss- 
inys f ir this people, then, a |)et)ple thus di.slini^uisliL'd [>y His 
^nacioLis hand, become corrupt, and in word or deed ilcny llini, 
lan we believe that there is a God in heaven, without hihfving 
ilso, that He will send down signal punislnuent on thfir heads, 
iliat he will rain upon them retributious as unprecedented as 
He hath hitherto conferred upon them blessings unexampled ? 
Is there any reason to apprehend that there has been this 
national degeneracy? Surely my brethren, lie must be a very 
careless observer of the signs of the times, who does not see 
alarming symptoms of growing demoralization and irreligion. 

The men of '76 I am firmly persuaded, when compared with 
any other body of men who have brought about important 
political changes, will appear eminent for general purity of cha- 
racter, for the absence of egotism in all its shapes, (or a self- 
renouncing love of country, and for that deep sense of religion 
which lies at the bottom of all really noble qualities, in illus- 
tration of this, I will mention an incident in the life of one of 
them, who is scarcely known out of his own state, and far too 
little in it. 

The Governor of Virginia, at the time of the siege of York- 
town, was a gentleman, who, at the commencement of the 
revolutionary struggle, possessed, in addition to other advan- 
tages, the largest fortune in that then wealthy colony. He not 
only took his part in the ordinary dangers of that era, he not 
only perilled his life in the high places of the field, but he like- 
wise laid this ample fortune as an offering on the altar of his 
country. The close of the war left that country free and him 
impoverished and contented. This forgetfulness of self, this 
loftiness of spirit was not the characteristic of a few distinguished 
men, it was the temper of the people at that day. The common 
soldiers marching to battle, might be tracked by the blood issuing 
from their naked and lacerated feet. Duty was the watchword. 
There was a fervent religious spirit existing, more than their 
descendants generally understand or acknowledge. Religion 
did not use the same dialect, or wear the same garb as at present ; 
she did not make broad her phylacteries, and enlarge the borders 
of her garments as at present, but it may well be (jupstioned 



1-2 

wht'llit'i III! |iiiin'i|ilfs were uol as deei)ly seated lu tlie luiuds uf 
men, whether her praiiic;)! influence was not as powerful and 
happy, wliether her resuUs were not as acceptal)le to God, and as 
protiiahle to man. How solemn and how frequent are the re- 
cogjiiiions of Divine Providence in the public documents of that 
day? Days of national humiliation for national sins, and of 
national tlianksgiving for national mercies, were solemnly ap- 
pointed and devoutly observed * Of this religious feeling there 
was a remarkable expression in the convention which framed 
our present constitution. Their deliberations were not proceed- 
ing happily, and there seemed to be danger that they would 
break up without ert'ecting the object for which they had met. 
Under these circumstances, Dr. Franklin, a man not considered 
remarkable among his contemporaries for a devotional spirit, 
rose and said, "that he had lived a long time, and the longer he 
lived the more convincing proofs he saw, that God governed in 
the affairs of men. He firmly believed what was taught in the 
sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house they 
labour in vain who build it. That he attributed their ill-success 
to their not luimbly applying to the Father of Lights, to illumi- 
nate their understandings ; and he moved that prayers, imploring 
the assistance of heaven, and its blessing on their deliberations, 
be henceforth held." How sublime and affecting was the sight, 
when, according to his proposal, that assemblage of world-famous 
men, gallant warriors, eminent statesmen, illustrious sages, knelt 
in prayer and asked for the wisdom which they confessed they 
themselves had not. It was indeed a characteristic and a 
memoral)le scene. Those magnanimous men, that had recently 
braved the fury of the most powerful monarch upon earth, that 
had never feared the face of mortal, now hiuiibled themselves, 
like little children, before Almighty God, acknowledged their 
weakness, and craved His iluherly help and blessing? And 

• I h«vc ttj»on to know, that ilurinj; tlie revolutionary war, Mr. .TclVirson, tlicn a mem- 
ber ofthr hotiM- ofdrlcpalcs o( Virifiiiia, from lliu county of Albemarle, wrote to the minis- 
ter of ihr pariili in tliul county, ur(;inp upon him the most solemn observance of a fast, then 
rrccnlly a|>|K>intc(l liy tlio K(;islature. This proves either that Mr. .lefTerson's own senti- 
mriil» on rcli;:ii>ii( mibjtcijt, were, at that time, more sound than they became after liis 
rr«i<lFncc in I'urii, anil inlertoume with the French enryclopedist-i, or that he knew the 
•lirnnlh of thi- nliniou* fcelinp of (lie people, and w ished Ihcm enlisted in favour of 
ihr raiiw in whiih hr wat < iiikiikril. |n either point of view it is significant. 



13 

shall we not believe tliat tliey reeeiveil il / Nnilimg could make 
us doubt it, but the degeneracy of tiieir desccndiints. \Vln» 
could now say of an American Congress, what lord Chatham 
said of the congress of his day, that "compared with a llonian 
senate, it deserved the preference for dignity and (or wisdom." 
How bitter a sarcasm would such an observation be, after one of 
those scenes of personal altercation and reviling which disgrace 
every session, and. almost every week of every session, and 
which make the cheek of a true-hearted American to burn witli 
shame and indignation wlien he reads them? 

And when we go into the walks of private life, we there find 
evidences of degeneracy, equally conspicuous and equally unde- 
niable. How disgracefully frequent of late, have been instances 
of fraud, defalcation, embezzlement of public treasure and of pri- 
vate property. We are considered abroad a dishonest people, 
and it pains an American, born on the soil of the country, and 
expecting to live and die on it, to admit that the disparaging 
opinion, though surely not true of the body of the people, is not 
an absolute and unmixed calumny. How fall at the same time 
are our papers, of the records of the grossest profligacy and of 
murderous violence? It is probable, that in the last three years 
more homicides have been committed than during any ten of our 
previous national existence. 

In every city and in almost every village, a crimson spot may 
be seen, where the blood of man has been shed by his fellow- 
man. And the darkest sign as to national morals, is that these 
murders generally go unpunished, and frequently uncensured. 
Can a people, descended from such ancestors, and exhibiting 
such traits of character as we exhibit, expect to go unpunished ? 
Has not God already shown His sense of our national sins ? 
How much distress has for the last five or six years hung over 
our country? Through how many difficulties and embarrass- 
ments have they waded ? How many families have been re- 
duced froin wealth to anxious, care-worn poverty? How many 
broken hearts have there been? How many, finding their bur- 
den too heavy for them to bear, have laid rash and wicked 
hands on their own unhappy lives ? Tell me not that these 
calamities have been brought on us by political causes, by hu- 



14 

iii:iii iii.siiiiiiifiilalily ! They have been brouglil un us under 
{\ii- sfovernment ol' (jJod, and by His permission, or they never 
t-nuld have liappened. Nor in scourging us, has He confined 
Himself to blows inflicted by other hands. He has several 
times stricken us directly and incontestibly by His own act. 

Three years ago, the people of this country elected, as their 
chief magistrate, a man in whom they greatly confided, and 
from whom they iioped much. He was not supposed to possess 
brilliant abilities, or extraordinary force of character, but he was 
(Irar to the popular heart, because it was believed that in him 
might be recognized something of the old, the pure, the self- 
renouncing spirit. With many opportunities of getting rich, he 
had remained poor; Avhere the question lay between his 
own elevation and the good of his country, he had always pre- 
ferred the latter. He was thought to have a deep sense of his 
duties to God and man. He was just permitted to enter on the 
|)osscssion of power, when that and all other earthly things were 
taken from him. I Ic had just crossed the threshold of his palace, 
when h(; was smnmoned to take his place in the tomb. Men 
said, some one thing, and some another, about his death; but 
all seemed to feel that the hand of God was in it, and that it was 
a warning and a chastisement to a guilty people. But did they 
lay it to heart, and repent? Were our national sins mourned 
and forsaken? Rather, since, they have been shameliilly and 
frarfully nmltiplied : confidence is more and more impaired be- 
iwccn man and nian ; we are compelled to take heed every one 
of his neighbour, and to trust not any brother ; deeds of deadly 
rcvfiigf :ire more and more frequent, authority is moreandmore 
(lrs))ised, and the bonds which bind society together are relaxing, 
so that absolute anarchy seems to be impending over us. Loy- 
alty, thai is, reverence for law, the sure mark of a well instructed 
and high-i»rin<'ipl<'(l people, who obey government, not from tear 
of the brute force it may wield, but from respect to the rightfid 
aulhoriiy it rl.ijnis — this sentiment, enjoined by (Jod himself, 
••Icvaling to ihn rharai;ter of a nation, indispensable to its peace 
uud order, seems to b(i fading away from the minds of our people. 

Ai^ain I ask, will not (Jod avenge His r)wn cause ? But three 
^hori years li.i\«- »l;i|»sed since He spoiled this nation of its head ; 



15 

not twelve months have rolled by since one of oiu' highest exe- 
cutive officers, the legal adviser of the government, died as in a 
day. He died lamented by all. I know little or nothing of him 
but as a public man; but, as a public man, there was much to 
admire in his independent spirit, his large capacity, his unwearied 
industry, his varied accomplishments, his rich and brilliant 
eloquence. When we heard of the death of Legare, we all felt 
that the country had lost one of its ornaments. And he died yet 
young, while the country had much more to hope for from him. 
His sun had not reached the mid-heavens when it passed beyond 
our horizon. And again and again are we stricken. On this 
last occasion, four or five of our eminent men are cut down as in 
an instant, by causes inscrutable to us, by what we must consider 
a manifest act of Providence ; not because they were sinners 
above others, but that we who survive may understand that 
unless we repent, we too shall likewise perish. As if to show 
that it was a blow aimed at the nation, these, its chief officers, 
fiiU in an act of national exultation. They, with others of the 
eminent men of the country, are embarked in a ship of new and 
peculiar construction, which it is hoped will assure our safety 
from foreign aggressions, and even elevate our national power 
and honour. All is gaiety and security. No sense of danger 
damps the feeling of enjoyment. Part have risen from their ban- 
quet, part yet linger at it, when they hear a dull and heavy 
sound, a bright light shoots upwards from the deck, and in a 
moment four or five of the most honoured guests pass from the 
scene of revehy and mirth to the immediate presence of their 
Maker, to the world of untried and eternal existence. That 
deck on which the great and the gay, the wise and the beautiful, 
have just been loitering, is now covered with the blood, the torn 
limbs and the yet palpitating flesh of dead men. Ah ! shall a 
trumpet be blown in a city and the people not be afraid? Shall 
there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? Shall we 
not, with self-abasement and unfeigned repentance, recognize 
in this event the hand of God, justly punishing this people for 
their sins, awfully warning us of greater evils to come if we turn 
not. Surely an event like this is something more than a private 
calamity. Without doubt, it is a national judgment. The 



16 

weeping and ilie wailing of the widow and the orphan, that aiv 
now going up before God, should be accompanied by the prayers 
:ind the tears of a penitent people. 

But if, my hearers, you ask what you in especial can do, what 
inlluence you, a mere fragment, can exert over the destinies of 
this great nation, 1 answer that the whole ocean is preserved 
uncorrupl because cacli drop in it is penetrated and acted on by 
the purifying salt. Thus every individual among us affects, for 
good or lor evil, the character of the nation, contributes to swell 
the amount of national guilt, or hinders the progress of the com- 
nau)ity in that downward course which we observe and lament. 
Let each one of us, as in the days of Nehemiah, build up the 
wall of national defence over against his own liouse. Let each 
one labour to cleanse his own heart and his own life, and to 
improve those whom he influences. Many of us are placed at 
the head of families: we can train them up in the right ways 
of the Lord. Each one of us can love our country, and pray 
for it; can sacrifice self-interest and selfish pleasure for its good; 
can assist in sending the written Word and the living minister 
to the ytooT, the destitute and the vicious. Each one of us may 
thus contribute something to that righteousness which exalteth 
a nation, may do something to remove that sin which brings a 
reproach on any people. 



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